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Re: The Fall of the House of Murdoch
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Taylor
Feb 26, 2010, 1:06:17 AM2/26/10
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On Feb 26, 12:54 am, Twitchell <Twitchell_mem...@newsguy.com> wrote:
> http://gawker.com/5480363/the-fall-of-the-house-of-murdoch
>
> Gawker.com, NTVNAT.com
>
> Rupert Murdoch—the dashing, daring, fearsome and fearless press baron, the mogul
> among moguls—will celebrate his 79th birthday next month. As he approaches his
> final years at the helm of his empire, he finds it crumbling around him.
>
> Sure, News Corp. reported a better-than-expected $250 million profit last
> quarter on the strength of Fox News and Avatar, and all indications are that it
> has weathered the recession intact. But Murdoch's lifelong crusade has always
> been about more than just money—it's been about acquiring power, routing
> enemies, and the glorification of his own ego. And he has always accomplished
> those goals surrounded by a merry gang of corporate bandits, happily slitting
> throats and cutting deals with a vicious and entrepreneurial esprit de corps
> traceable to Murdoch's own tyrannical mien. It was an extraordinarily well-run
> company, guided by an iron fist.
>
> No more. "It's terrible now," a News Corp. insider tells Gawker, relating the
> slow, Shakespearian devolution of Murdoch's fierce machinery into turmoil,
> factionalism, and infighting. The old man, nearing the end of his reign, no
> longer inspires enough fear or loyalty within his own ranks to keep the jostling
> for power beneath the surface, and a Lord of the Flies ugliness abounds. Roger
> Ailes has transformed Fox News into a highly profitable rogue political
> operation, jeopardizing Murdoch's most prized asset—his access to political
> power—with an unending stream of volatile rhetoric. His longtime consigliere and
> liaison to the Democratic power structure, Gary Ginsberg, decamped last year and
> just joined Time Warner. Matthew Freud, his own son-in-law, is lobbing bombs at
> Ailes in the pages of the New York Times. And Murdoch himself, though spry by
> any standards for a 78-year-old, is showing his age: His leadership has become
> unfocused, insiders say, and he's made a bizarre string of public statements,
> from agreeing with Glenn Beck that Barack Obama is a racist to claiming he never
> said that a few days later to blaming New York's political woes on Gov. David
> Paterson's blindness. The internal turmoil has led the News Corp. insider to
> commit the unforgivable sin of speaking of Murdoch in the past tense: "He had a
> good run."
>
> The growing factionalism within News Corp.'s ranks as Murdoch nears the end of
> his days is likely to be the topic of a New York magazine story on the company,
> by reporter Gabriel Sherman, that is set to run next week. Sherman's nosing
> around has sparked considerable chatter in Murdoch-land, and insiders are said
> to fear that it may begin to shake loose some of the crumbling edifice of
> Murdoch's empire.
>
> If Murdoch were to stop for a moment when he celebrates his birthday next month
> and, King Lear-like, survey his kingdom, here is what he would see:
>
> The Hapless Heir
> The battle for who will replace Murdoch at the helm seems to have come down to a
> choice of his son James or anybody else. Lachlan Murdoch has been exiled to
> Australia and recently sold off the bulk of his personal shares in his father's
> company to fund his own acquisitions. Murdoch's daughter Elizabeth seems
> unwilling to give up Shine, her television production company, and is an
> unlikely choice. That leaves James, whose anal-retentive management style is
> said to be reviled by many News Corp. regulars. Where Rupert and his old number
> two Peter Chernin—whose conflicts with James led to his departure last year—were
> freewheeling and tended to trust their deputies, James is controlling and
> obsessed with memos and progress reports. As he inserts himself into News
> Corp.'s operations, he's undermining the buccaneering culture his father
> encouraged. "With all the memos and structure, it's almost more like GE than
> News Corp. now," says one insider. James' chief flunky is Matthew Anderson, the
> overly aggressive and scheming flack that James brought on board in the wake of
> Chernin's departure to help grease the skids for his ascension, who demands that
> talking points and briefings be prepared for his boss to engage in the most
> casual conversations.
>
> The Meddling Wife
> To mix Shakespearean metaphors, Murdoch's second third wife Wendi Deng is the
> Lady Macbeth of his kingdom. Obsessed with Hollywood glitz and eager to raise
> her profile as a mogul's wife—and harboring ambitions of her own as a potential
> power player in her husband's model—Deng floats among News Corp.'s properties,
> dabbling in films and even maintaining an office at MySpace at one point (she's
> still involved with MySpace's operations in China). She briefly partnered with
> the wife of former MGM chairman Harry Sloan on a movie starring her friend Zhang
> Ziyi—the star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—before the project fell through.
> Deng's social ambition is gargantuan, and she is cultivating a mogul's wives
> sewing circle including Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google co-founder Sergei Brin
> and Ivanka Trump.
>
> The Rogue Knight
> Roger Ailes' Fox News brings in $700 million in annual profit to News Corp., and
> was the only reason the company made money last year. But the festival of white
> rage that Ailes has unleashed to bring those dollars in has put Murdoch in an
> awkward position with the White House—a place he never likes to be, politics
> aside. The tension between profit and access blew up last month in a bizarre New
> York Times story featuring Ailes banging his dick on the table about how
> successful he's been and Matthew Freud, Elizabeth Murdoch's husband, delivering
> a pointed attack on Fox News' "horrendous and sustained disregard of the
> journalistic standards." It's unclear where Murdoch stands on Fox News, aside
> from the fact that he loves money. Insiders say it was none other than Wendi
> Deng and James Murdoch who arranged for the Times' Tim Arango to talk to Freud
> for that story, meaning Murdoch's closest family members are plotting against
> his biggest earner.
>
> Add to those the mess at the New York Post, which is facing a rash of lawsuits
> exposing the foul racism and sexism that editor Col Allan has fostered, and the
> boondoggle of MySpace, which Murdoch bought for $580 million in 2006 only to
> watch it get demolished by Facebook. Murdoch is a vile man, who has done vile
> things. It's fitting that the black empire he built so efficiently over the
> course of his life should begin to fray at the end of his reign. But it's still
> kind of sad.
> http://gawker.com/5480363/the-fall-of-the-house-of-murdoch
>
> Gawker.com, NTVNAT.com
>
> Rupert Murdoch—the dashing, daring, fearsome and fearless press baron, the mogul
> among moguls—will celebrate his 79th birthday next month. As he approaches his
> final years at the helm of his empire, he finds it crumbling around him.
>
> Sure, News Corp. reported a better-than-expected $250 million profit last
> quarter on the strength of Fox News and Avatar, and all indications are that it
> has weathered the recession intact. But Murdoch's lifelong crusade has always
> been about more than just money—it's been about acquiring power, routing
> enemies, and the glorification of his own ego. And he has always accomplished
> those goals surrounded by a merry gang of corporate bandits, happily slitting
> throats and cutting deals with a vicious and entrepreneurial esprit de corps
> traceable to Murdoch's own tyrannical mien. It was an extraordinarily well-run
> company, guided by an iron fist.
>
> No more. "It's terrible now," a News Corp. insider tells Gawker, relating the
> slow, Shakespearian devolution of Murdoch's fierce machinery into turmoil,
> factionalism, and infighting. The old man, nearing the end of his reign, no
> longer inspires enough fear or loyalty within his own ranks to keep the jostling
> for power beneath the surface, and a Lord of the Flies ugliness abounds. Roger
> Ailes has transformed Fox News into a highly profitable rogue political
> operation, jeopardizing Murdoch's most prized asset—his access to political
> power—with an unending stream of volatile rhetoric. His longtime consigliere and
> liaison to the Democratic power structure, Gary Ginsberg, decamped last year and
> just joined Time Warner. Matthew Freud, his own son-in-law, is lobbing bombs at
> Ailes in the pages of the New York Times. And Murdoch himself, though spry by
> any standards for a 78-year-old, is showing his age: His leadership has become
> unfocused, insiders say, and he's made a bizarre string of public statements,
> from agreeing with Glenn Beck that Barack Obama is a racist to claiming he never
> said that a few days later to blaming New York's political woes on Gov. David
> Paterson's blindness. The internal turmoil has led the News Corp. insider to
> commit the unforgivable sin of speaking of Murdoch in the past tense: "He had a
> good run."
>
> The growing factionalism within News Corp.'s ranks as Murdoch nears the end of
> his days is likely to be the topic of a New York magazine story on the company,
> by reporter Gabriel Sherman, that is set to run next week. Sherman's nosing
> around has sparked considerable chatter in Murdoch-land, and insiders are said
> to fear that it may begin to shake loose some of the crumbling edifice of
> Murdoch's empire.
>
> If Murdoch were to stop for a moment when he celebrates his birthday next month
> and, King Lear-like, survey his kingdom, here is what he would see:
>
> The Hapless Heir
> The battle for who will replace Murdoch at the helm seems to have come down to a
> choice of his son James or anybody else. Lachlan Murdoch has been exiled to
> Australia and recently sold off the bulk of his personal shares in his father's
> company to fund his own acquisitions. Murdoch's daughter Elizabeth seems
> unwilling to give up Shine, her television production company, and is an
> unlikely choice. That leaves James, whose anal-retentive management style is
> said to be reviled by many News Corp. regulars. Where Rupert and his old number
> two Peter Chernin—whose conflicts with James led to his departure last year—were
> freewheeling and tended to trust their deputies, James is controlling and
> obsessed with memos and progress reports. As he inserts himself into News
> Corp.'s operations, he's undermining the buccaneering culture his father
> encouraged. "With all the memos and structure, it's almost more like GE than
> News Corp. now," says one insider. James' chief flunky is Matthew Anderson, the
> overly aggressive and scheming flack that James brought on board in the wake of
> Chernin's departure to help grease the skids for his ascension, who demands that
> talking points and briefings be prepared for his boss to engage in the most
> casual conversations.
>
> The Meddling Wife
> To mix Shakespearean metaphors, Murdoch's second third wife Wendi Deng is the
> Lady Macbeth of his kingdom. Obsessed with Hollywood glitz and eager to raise
> her profile as a mogul's wife—and harboring ambitions of her own as a potential
> power player in her husband's model—Deng floats among News Corp.'s properties,
> dabbling in films and even maintaining an office at MySpace at one point (she's
> still involved with MySpace's operations in China). She briefly partnered with
> the wife of former MGM chairman Harry Sloan on a movie starring her friend Zhang
> Ziyi—the star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—before the project fell through.
> Deng's social ambition is gargantuan, and she is cultivating a mogul's wives
> sewing circle including Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google co-founder Sergei Brin
> and Ivanka Trump.
>
> The Rogue Knight
> Roger Ailes' Fox News brings in $700 million in annual profit to News Corp., and
> was the only reason the company made money last year. But the festival of white
> rage that Ailes has unleashed to bring those dollars in has put Murdoch in an
> awkward position with the White House—a place he never likes to be, politics
> aside. The tension between profit and access blew up last month in a bizarre New
> York Times story featuring Ailes banging his dick on the table about how
> successful he's been and Matthew Freud, Elizabeth Murdoch's husband, delivering
> a pointed attack on Fox News' "horrendous and sustained disregard of the
> journalistic standards." It's unclear where Murdoch stands on Fox News, aside
> from the fact that he loves money. Insiders say it was none other than Wendi
> Deng and James Murdoch who arranged for the Times' Tim Arango to talk to Freud
> for that story, meaning Murdoch's closest family members are plotting against
> his biggest earner.
>
> Add to those the mess at the New York Post, which is facing a rash of lawsuits
> exposing the foul racism and sexism that editor Col Allan has fostered, and the
> boondoggle of MySpace, which Murdoch bought for $580 million in 2006 only to
> watch it get demolished by Facebook. Murdoch is a vile man, who has done vile
> things. It's fitting that the black empire he built so efficiently over the
> course of his life should begin to fray at the end of his reign. But it's still
> kind of sad.
If it can take down that mega-corrupt Fox "News", all the better.
RichA
Feb 26, 2010, 1:30:09 AM2/26/10
to
Yes, lets go back to the world leftwing cabal running all news, like
it used to be. No thanks.
it used to be. No thanks.
Chaos out of Order
Feb 26, 2010, 3:50:25 AM2/26/10
to
On Feb 25, 10:30 pm, RichA <rander3...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, lets go back to the world leftwing cabal running all news, like
> it used to be. No thanks.
> Yes, lets go back to the world leftwing cabal running all news, like
> it used to be. No thanks.
So you would rather have the news filtered to your liking? There is
another choice and you would see it if you would only think about it.
That choice is a media that leans towards the truth. No opinions of
the pundits. No appeals to emotions. Just facts and scientific/
mathematical analysis of those facts. I just don't understand why
those who watch Fox think that the media has to either lean left or
right. It's sad.
Get lost
Feb 26, 2010, 5:07:07 AM2/26/10
to
On Feb 26, 3:50 am, Chaos out of Order <goofin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 25, 10:30 pm, RichA <rander3...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Yes, lets go back to the world leftwing cabal running all news, like
> > it used to be. No thanks.
>
> So you would rather have the news filtered to your liking? There is
> another choice and you would see it if you would only think about it.
> That choice is a media that leans towards the truth.
> On Feb 25, 10:30 pm, RichA <rander3...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Yes, lets go back to the world leftwing cabal running all news, like
> > it used to be. No thanks.
>
> So you would rather have the news filtered to your liking? There is
> another choice and you would see it if you would only think about it.
> That choice is a media that leans towards the truth.
I'd love that. News with ZERO political opinion, just analysis of
actions versus results. But that is never going to happen, so in lieu
of this, we need a balance of left-right views and that isn't what we
had 10 years ago.
Ramon F Herrera
Feb 26, 2010, 5:14:05 AM2/26/10
to
No news outlet can be devoid of opinion and ideological leaning. It
takes a lot of self-confidence to hire and promote people with
opposing views.
A comparison is in order.
CNN is the channel that invented the industry.
Fox is the channel that invented the partisan channel.
CNN brought to us Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck. They were both given full
freedom, and the only reason Glenn Beck resigned is because he had a
better deal (and let's face it: he belongs in Fox).
As a counterpart, Fox News has a pretty boy (Hannity) with a
subservient who looks like a castrated horse. This cannot possibly be
a coincidence, much less from a company that owns movie studios and
therefore knows the value of appearance and looks, as opposed to
substance and intellect.
Sarah Palin: Need I say more?
Last but not least, CNN is the most respected -and watched- news
channel in the world. Faux (a well deserved name if I ever saw one)
are nothing more than a GOP-TV affiliate.
-Ramon
lorad
Feb 26, 2010, 6:25:41 AM2/26/10
to
On Feb 26, 1:30 am, RichA <rander3...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, lets go back to the world leftwing cabal running all news, like
> it used to be. No thanks.
> Yes, lets go back to the world leftwing cabal running all news, like
> it used to be. No thanks.
Geez, you are dumb...
The PHANTOM
Feb 26, 2010, 7:02:59 AM2/26/10
to
>
> - Show quoted text -
"Corrupt"?? What's "corrupt" about FOX news other than the fact you
hate Glen Beck?
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